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Outliers: The Story of Success | 
 enlarge | Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Publisher: Allen Lane
Category: Book
List Price: £16.99
Buy New: £7.64
You Save: £9.35 (55%)
New (17) Used (2) from £6.88
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 39
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 1846141214
EAN: 9781846141218
ASIN: 1846141214
Publication Date: November 18, 2008 (New: This Week)
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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 Small but Perfectly Formed November 22, 2008
Outliers: The Story of Success
Gladwell on fine form in this shiny little gem of a book. Don't we all love to read about the rich and successful. Give me 10,000 hours and I could be one of them!
conversation starting, thought-provoking November 21, 2008
Spurred on by having tickets to hear Gladwell speak next week, I started reading this as soon as it arrived through the post. At first, I couldn't decide if Gladwell's ideas were incredibly basic or so profound I was missing something. By the time I finished, in one extended sitting, I was not only convinced by his argument about success, but empowered. I realised that Gladwell's brilliance is his ability to take what now seems like such an obvious, logical idea (clearly only in retrospect) and make it real. He not only makes the idea - that success is largely due to one's background and opportunities - come alive, but explains it in a fluent, engaging and utterly persuasive way. A way that, judging by the success of Blink or The Tipping Point, will surely make an impact on a massive number of people. A must read for anyone from their teens on up, who wishes to reconsider what we in the western world have been taught about success: that it requires, above all, spectacular talent or brilliance.
Gladwell at his best - inspirational! November 21, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I don't usually write reviews but was so surprised that someone could deem this 'boring', I felt compelled to respond. The one thing it isn't is boring. This book is fascinating, insightful and - as cliche as it sounds - empowering. It made me think a lot about my children and the way I thought about their potential for success. It made me reconsider the way I thought about my own personal achievements and the achievements of my family and friends. I love the way Gladwell tells a story and it's simply a delightful and inspirational book. I can't stop thinking and talking about the book to anyone and everyone who will listen!
Brilliant and thought provoking November 21, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I've not done this before and need to fess something up straight away - I work for the publisher of this book and also work with Amazon. However having read the first review up for this title I have say I couldn't disagree more - this is by some way the best Gladwell I've read, it is bursting with the usual nuanced and angled views on (yes) quite an obvious subject. No, it's not a celeb heavy statement of greatness, it's much more subtle than that. What makes the book so strong is how Gladwell digs into what everyone knows - hard work brings success - to uncover all the other elements. In fact it's a mistake to assume the theme of this book is as simple as hard work = success. Gladwell shows the background, the groundings on which success occurs. In the case of many sports you can work as hard as you like or focus as much as possible on your success - unless you are born in the right places and get exposed to the right competition you are not likely to crack it. And the personal ending to this book is a real departure for Gladwell, a fascinating insight into the very real side of some of these theories. So, yes, I'm biased, and yes, don't buy this if you want to hear Bill Gates tell you how he got so good. But do buy it if you have interest in the hidden side of success, the sociological elements of achievement (and failure), and just the sheer joy in unseen paths that Gladwell can bring out. I'm lucky, I didn't have to buy it - but I rammed through it in one sitting, enjoying every second of it.
 Sheer nonsense! November 21, 2008
2 out of 11 found this review helpful
Gladwell always tries to take a common topic of interest and put an unusual spin on it. In this case he has spun out of control. In this book he tries desperately to identify which factors make a person successful. There is no logical sequence - nor any logic at all to this book. Gladwell jumps around from one haphazzard topic to the next, grasping at straws, throwing in some spurious statistics to identify what set of factors makes a person successful.
As we all know, success is the result of knowing what you want and focusing on it. Whilst he may bring up a few interesting points, to wade through the content of the book for a highlight here and there is simply not worth it. In a nutshell, this book is boring, and does not add value to the reader. Rather read the autobiography of a successful person like Branson. (Branson's new book : "Business Sripped Bare" will give you far more insight into a multitude of success factors than the theoretical nonsense contained in Outliers!)
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